In wireless telecommunication networks, such as cellular wireless networks, a radio access network (RAN) may communicate with a mobile station by transmitting forward link signals and the mobile station may communicate with the RAN by transmitting forward link signals. When the mobile station is engaged in a call, the RAN may transmit signals to the mobile station over a forward traffic channel and the mobile station may transmit signals to the RAN over a reverse traffic channel. The forward traffic channel may be a dedicated channel that the RAN allocates to the mobile station for the call.
During the call, the RAN may monitor the reverse link signals that the mobile station transmits over the reverse traffic channel. If the RAN determines that it has lost contact with the mobile station, the RAN may release the forward traffic channel that it had allocated to the mobile station for the call. In a conventional approach, the RAN determines that it has lost contact with the mobile station when the RAN fails to receive usable reverse traffic channel frames during a fixed period of time, such as 5 seconds. Thus, when the RAN receives a bad frame over the reverse traffic channel, the RAN may start a call drop timer. If the RAN begins to receive good frames before the call drop timer expires, then the RAN maintains the call. Otherwise, the RAN considers the call to have been dropped, and the RAN releases the forward traffic channel and/or other resources that had been allocated for the call.